Loweswater and Lorton, North Lakes

Length of ride – 10 to 12 miles (depending on where you start from)

Parking – We did this from our lovely B & B accommodation (Swinside End Farm, Lorton B & B with a field for the horses https://www.swinsideendfarm.co.uk/) , but you could also do the this from National Trust car park at Scalehill Bridge, Loweswater (£8 per day). This is a very busy car park so if at the weekend get there early. The other place you could park is the layby off A5086 at Mockerkin Tarn. Lunch, hot and cold drinks could be taken at the Kirkstile Inn at Loweswater, but you may like to book for food as it does get busy.

Things to note – many of the tracks are stoney and can be slippy after rain so if your horse is barefoot you may like to use hoof boots. There are gates and you may like to get off to do some of them. I would recommend taking a long lead rope so you can give yourself extra space to manoeuvre through some of these gates.

This ride takes in quiet lanes, lonnings (local name for green lanes/unregistered roads marked on OS map as green dots) and bridleways. Starting from Lorton go up the hill and take the lonnings track north of Fellbarrow for about 2.5 miles. This brings you out on a quiet lane where you turn left and head towards Loweswater. This then leads to another long Lonnings track, which eventually come out in Loweswater. Here you can go straight on, but we cut the corner off by picking up the bridleway. Once down on the road turn right and pick up the bridleway through Hudson Place and through the woods around Loweswater. This brings you out on the road and then it quiet lanes all the way back to Lorton.

A GPX file of this ride can be downloaded from Ride Cumbria Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/367414084781168

Comments

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